[[quoteright:330:[[Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BITF-Ode-To-Minions-And-Mooks_7937.jpg]]]][-[[caption-width-right:330:[[Film/StreetFighter For you, the day]] [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] [[Film/StreetFighter graced your level was the most important day of your life]]... [[ButForMeItWasTuesday but for me, it was an opening stage.]]]]-]

->''[W]henever a massacre of Armenians is reported from Asia Minor, every one assumes that it has been carried out "under orders" from somewhere or another; no one seems to think that there are people who might like to kill their neighbours now and then.''-->--'''Creator/{{Saki}}'''

When the hero confronts the BigBad, no matter his crimes, he will [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim spare him]], despite all logic being against it; however, when he kills a {{Mook}} who happens to be in his way, it's no big deal.

Why? Because {{Red Shirt}}s and {{Mooks}} are not generally [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman seen as people]]. After all, they [[NominalImportance lack a name]] and other [[WhatMeasureIsANonUnique distinguishing characteristics]] (sometimes they [[FacelessGoons don't even get a face]]), so they also have [[EmptyShell no identity or soul]].

This is generally done intentionally. A primary antagonist, even if their face is somehow concealed, will likely have a very distinctive appearance and a considerable amount of dialogue. However, mooks are often [[CloningBlues clones]] or [[FacelessGoons wear masks]] (perhaps even both), and consequently have very little [[SortingAlgorithmOfMortality chance of surviving]] an encounter with the hero.

However, there are exceptions that can save a mook. If the mooks [[MookFaceTurn switch sides]] (a rare event), they usually get the benefit of RedemptionEarnsLife; additionally, if they were GoodAllAlong and only doing evil because they had no choice, they have a shot. Also, some works of (generally kid-friendly) fiction explain the heroes used a NonLethalKO on their foes.

Subtrope of ProtagonistCenteredMorality. Compare WhatMeasureIsANonSuper, WhatMeasureIsANonUnique, and WhatMeasureIsANonHuman. AMillionIsAStatistic can be this when applied to mooks in large numbers. Contrast ImmortalLifeIsCheap. PayEvilUntoEvil normally goes hand-in-hand with all this mookocide, often with sneers about the way mooks ''will'' go around JustFollowingOrders. Sometimes [[HandWave justified(?)]] by the assumption that mooks are AlwaysChaoticEvil, though, as many examples show, entirely innocent GullibleLemmings are often gunned down, as well. BreakoutMookCharacter may be a subversion. MookHorrorShow is a popular SubTrope.

Before adding an example, consider this: is the FinalBoss treated any better than the mooks? If not, it's probably not an example. Additionally subversions of the RedShirt kind go in AMillionIsAStatistic.----!!Examples[[index]]* WhatMeasureIsAMook/AnimeAndManga* WhatMeasureIsAMook/{{Film}}* WhatMeasureIsAMook/{{Literature}}* WhatMeasureIsAMook/LiveActionTV* WhatMeasureIsAMook/VideoGames* WhatMeasureIsAMook/{{Webcomics}}* WhatMeasureIsAMook/WesternAnimation[[/index]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]* Ruthlessly subverted and taken apart in ''Hench,'' by Adam Beechen and Manny Bello. In this graphic novel, a professional henchman (he's worked with a lot of supervillains, and tells us which are good bosses and which ones to stay away from at all costs) reflects on his life, and how it got so crazy. He isn't in the life ForTheEvulz so much as having no other way to make a living and support his kid.* Volume One, Issue Twelve of GrantMorrison's ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles'', titled "Best Man Fall", is a PosthumousCharacter study of a guard who appeared in only one panel of a previous issue. It shows various snapshots from his life, up until the point where he gets shot. While he's far from the a saint, it still works to make you feel sad for him dying.** This ends up being one of the running themes for the series, where mooks are often depicted as something more than grunting savages with guns before getting gunned down by the heroes. Yeah, it starts to wear on them, too. * One of the many ''Franchise/StarWars'' comic series, called ''Empire'', focuses on the Empire's side of the conflict against the Rebels. One of the main characters is an up and comer in the Empire who gets mocked because he cares about the lives of each and every Stormtrooper.* Actively [[DefiedTrope defied]] at the end of ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'' volume 2, in which the heroine earns a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming by showing she ''does'' care about a mook's family.** And invoked by the BigBad.* In {{FrankMiller}}'s ''TheDarkKnightReturns'', Batman won't kill the Joker even though his grinning adversary has recently murdered ''a studio full of people, on live TV''. Earlier on, however, he has no hesitation about using a gang member as a HumanShield, and then turning that gangster's machine-gun on his buddies. Sure, the gangsters were bad but WTF, Millar?** That was a split decision to save his own life. The Joker was already beaten. Just to be safe, Batman applied enough pressure to ''paralyze him from the neck down''.* One of the last few ''{{GI Joe}}'' comic books ("America's Elite") had a flashback to the early days of G.I. Joe and the evil Cobra. One of the undercover operatives was saying (paraphrased) "Yes, General Flagg, some of them are jerks but a lot of them are just confused people, they aren't really bad."* The subject is explored in the ''Comicbook/AstroCity'' arc ''Dark Age'' when [[spoiler:Royal and Charles go undercover as mooks in Pyramid.]]* This trope is brought up sometimes in ''SinCity'', despite the protagonists' violent nature. Marv refused to kill the initial set of cops sent against him and he employed similar methods when deaking with the henchmen at the Lord's estate, Wallace only killed a few assassins since he was one of the few SC characters who didn't like killing, Hartigan killed the guards at the Farm but mentioned that he hated doing it, and Dwight once questioned whether or not he should kill a cop on the grounds that he might be one of the few honest ones.* In the most recent {{Wolverine}} comics, one issue explores the background of a female Hand ninja, known best for being Marvel's go-to mooks for stories set in Japan. The ninja dies early on during one of Logan's frequent rampages. The Hand brings her back to life only to serve as the human equivalent of a broodmare. She refuses and instead joins the Right Red Hand, a group of people who blame Logan for ruining their lives.* One issue of ''[[Comicbook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage Tales of the TMNT]]'' goes into the backstory of a new recruit to the Foot Clan ninjas--his family, his personality, and why he wanted to join the Foot. He comes back from his first fight with the turtles in a body bag.* ''Fables'' loves to subvert this. We see bits and pieces of the [[BigBad Emperor's]] forces, background, interests, beliefs... Boy Blue [[spoiler: while he is sneaking through the Empire]] gives the goblins he questions the chance to surrender when he confronts them [[spoiler:since he just wants information]]. (Not his fault they kept attacking him.)* {{Franchise/Transformers}} IDW comics had both types of Aversions. There was a group called the Machination, where Humans would have themselves augmented into Transforming robot heads, and control giant robot bodies. When the Autobots fight them, they only stun them or cause them to crash, despite the fact that they've tried to kill the Autobots several times, almost killed Ironhide, and painfully took apart Sunstreaker. By Maximum Dinobots, The Monsterbots and Dinobots, being the most violent of the Autobots, gleefully kill, dismember and even eat the Humans, and are only stopped from killing their leader because Ultra Magnus wants to arrest and try him(and more importantly, the Decepticon he merged with) for crimes on many other planets.* ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye: The Decepticon Scavengers (six {{Mauve Shirt}}s) discuss this trope, during one battle, where Optimus and Megatron shut themselves off and plugged into a neural network. They could see the battle from the eyes of all their troops, and used it to better coordinate their attacks, The Scavengers say troops were reduced to numbers and statistics, and at the end of the day, the only thing separating the sides were that the Autobots had the decency to collect their dead while the Decepticons left their troops corpses to decay.* SpiderMan:** There was something like this in the story "Light the Night", a rather dramatic multipart story exploring the HiddenDepths of Spidey's old enemy Electro. A subplot of the story dealt with a common criminal who Spidey had caught on numerous occasions, but could ''never'' remember from one time to the next. The guy hated Spider-Man, not so much because he kept getting punched out and webbed to the wall; he even said he wouldn't mind so much if, for once, Spidey ''remembered who he was!'' Eventually, the guy tries to pull a grandiose stunt and rob a high-class party, pretending to be a super-villain (doing a rather lame job of it), and when Spidey shows up, again, he seems enraged by his "arch-enemy's" presence, but Spidey has no-idea who he is. It becomes a moot point a minute later, as Electro tries to pull an even ''bigger'' stunt that threatens to wipe out the entire city block. Still, after the real villain is apprehended, the story ends somewhat happy for the guy; he runs into a beautiful socialite from the party who doesn't recognize him as the criminal, and they hit it off quickly. (But Spidey still has no idea who the guy was at the end, not even recognizing him when he passes by in his civilian identity as Peter Parker. Maybe he just had a forgettable face...)* Here's a notable example where this happened as a result of a RedShirt dying. The first time SpiderMan villain {{Venom}} escaped from the Vault, he had to kill a guard to do so. (Even then, the guy's name was mentioned, as was the fact that he may have gotten the position by a rich relative who thought it was a high-paying easy job.) Much later, the guard's rich father and several of his friends sought revenge, forming a vigilante group called the Jury, equipped with high-powered armor based on the technology used to build the Guardsmen suits at the Vault. Unfortunately, they quickly turned into the KnightTemplar type, and even put SpiderMan on trial in a KangarooCourt, blaming him for creating Venom in the first place. [[spoiler:It was actually a ploy to guilt him into agreeing to help them get revenge against Venom; but when he realized they planned to ''murder'' Venom, Spidey came to his senses and beat them all ''senseless''.]]* Surprisingly reconstructed in IDW's ''G.I. Joe'' comics. Cobra troopers and operatives are frequently given hints of personality and backstory but rather than making the mooks look sympathetic or tragic, it just helps to reaffirm that they're bastards and deserve to get taken down. It's repeatedly pointed out that while the mooks may be people too, they're also a bunch of terrorists, thieves, and murderers willingly working for a major criminal organization. One issue gives the backstory of four random Cobra troopers, only one of whom comes off as even remotely sympathetic; the others are bluntly and honestly depicted as being either [[BloodKnight sociopaths who get off on violence]] or [[PsychoForHire ruthless murderers who will do anything for money]].[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]* Heavily deconstructed in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6225805/1/The_Measure_of_a_Guard The Measure of a Guard]]'', a short story set in the world of ''VideoGame/FallFromHeaven'', where the ''protagonist'' himself is a mook.* Kyon averts this trope in ''Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero''. Before fighting 24 {{Mooks}} with Yuki's help he asks her not kill any of them and/after the fight, worried about the battle aftermath on them, he asked her how much they were injured.* The VillainProtagonist of the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' fanfic ''The Council Era'', Tyrin Lieph, completely disregards his own Mooks as expendable. While this is reasonable when it only refers to his Mecha Mooks, later within the storyline, (i.e. The second part, The Krogan Rebellions, tenuously scheduled to start in summer of 2011) [[spoiler: he has completely disregarded the value of the lives of his dezban militia, the Krogan Resistance Movement, and his own devoted Soldiers of Salvation.]]* Subverted, in FanFic/TheStalkingZukoSeries Aang is called out on sparing Ozai when he and the Ocean Spirit[[note]]although it can be argued that the Ocean Spirit was the one in control at the time[[/note]] slaughter countless of Fire Nation soldiers in the Siege of the North.* In ''Fanfic/PerfectionIsOverrated'', this is played with with regards to the [[spoiler:First District minions whom the Usurper-possessed Obsidian Lord and his entourage killed]]. It's pointed out in the author's note, and in one such minion's final moments that they [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes leave loved ones behind]]. However, it's also pointed out that [[spoiler:The First District]] was a secret organization, so they were also most likely willing participants, and performed immoral or illegal deeds in the course of their duties. The note concludes that the slaughtered minions are "not necessarily bad people, but they made bad decisions; whether their deaths are a fair consequence is another matter, but they came as a result of their own actions."* As a sidestory in ''Fanfic/SonicEvilRebornZero'', a unit in a [[TheScrappy failed robot series]] becomes conscious of its fate as an expendable {{Mook}} and goes to extreme lengths to prove its worth. * Tails the fox [[DiscussedTrope ruminates on this trope]] in the fanfic ''Fanfic/TailsOfTheOldRepublic'', a crossover/ FusionFic between ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' and the videogame ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''. After meeting and having a pleasant conversation with Sarna, a junior officer of the Sith, Tails recognizes that if he were to face her in battle, he may have to injure or even kill her.He even notes how, in her Sith armor, Sarna would be just another [[FacelessGoons faceless mook]] and be completely dehumanized. * Subverted in ''Fanfic/TheRiseOfDarthVulcan''. The Diamond Dogs mourn the loss of their brethren with a large wake. Darth Vulcan feels guilty for not recognizing how many dogs died under his command, and joins them in their mourning.* This is played with quite well in ''Fanfic/BadFutureCrusaders''. The SwitchingPOV is often used in one chapter to portray some guards or airponies as faceless {{Mooks}}, only for them to pop up as named characters with personalities in another character's chapter. Apple Bloom is also very clearly haunted by [[WarIsHell killing enemy soldiers in a civil war]], and feels ''particularly'' guilty for [[spoiler:killing the one random {{Mook}} who happened to "get lucky" and kill her two friends.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original]]* ''SonicTheHedgehog2SpecialEdition'' reveals that one of the {{powerup}}s from Oil Ocean Zone was sapient. His name was Failure Cresh, and he had a thorough backstory involving being born with a ten-ring monitor for a head, and a HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood resulting from this. When the player destroys the monitor, the video pauses for a moment of silence--but it's obvious that the player himself is completely oblivious to the fact that he just killed a person.* The characters in ''DarwinsSoldiers'' kill a ''lot'' of terrorists, rogue guards and other assorted {{Mooks}} and no one seems to have a problem with it.* NewYorkMagician: Part of the reason Michel [[spoiler:hurls Malsumis off a building]] is because he's pissed off about Mal's cavalier attitude towards his minions' deaths, and the mortality of humans in general, culminating in TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.* ''Website/CollegeHumor'''s video ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV7Ha3VDbzE Stormtroopers' 9/11]]'' shows the fact that the Death Star's destruction was probably similar to a terrorist incident like 9/11 for the [[{{Mook}} Stormtroopers]].** Touched upon in the Star Wars canon; the Stormtroopers were indeed mourning, but it was less "terrorist attack" and more "disastrous military operation". However, the Stormtroopers were able to channel that mourning into devastating fervor during the Yavin base ground battle and avenge their fallen brethren.* Played for BlackComedy in the Website/{{Cracked}}.com video [[http://www.cracked.com/video_18134_the-awful-implications-first-person-shooter-games.html "The Awful Implications of First-Person Shooter Games"]]. Typical video game protagonist shoots a guard and escapes. As the guard lies dying, he complains about how much being a video game mook sucks.* {{Lampshaded}} in ''WebVideo/HellsingUltimateAbridged'':-->'''Alucard:''' Hey guys, how's your health plan? ''*SWAT team opens fire*'' Apparently it's great! -->''*carnage and gore ensue as the cops finally retreat into the elevator*''-->'''Integra:''' Walter, be honest with me: what are we looking at in terms of collateral?-->'''Walter:''' Well...''*Alucard walks out of elevator filled with corpses*'' the ''[[SociopathicHero Alucard]]'' amount.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]* [[http://www.maniacworld.com/taming-a-nazi-sniper-with-a-trumpet.html This]].* There is a RealLife protocol or general custom in war to not target the enemy Head of State (even though he's in ultimate command of the enemy war effort, and even if he might bear full responsibility as political originator for the enemy aggression if his country is the aggressor). ** This RealLife common KarmaHoudini tendency for the masterminds, profiteers, or political agitators for war, is commented on in a few protest songs, such as Music/BobDylan's "Masters of War", and Music/BlackSabbath's "War Pigs". From the latter:--> Politicians hide themselves away--> They always started the wars--> Why should they go out to fight?--> They leave that all to [[{{Mooks}} the poor]] ** When enemy heads of state (usually kings) were [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething actually on the battlefield]] in earlier times, [[InvertedTrope they were fair game]] however. *** Fair game, but often had an enhanced chance of survival, because it was frequently much more to your benefit to capture kings and princes and sell them back for ransom than to kill them, and then deal with their successor ''and'' the international grudge you'd just attracted.** Notably, this is not actually a law of war. According to the Geneva Conventions, the enemy's high command is fair game for targeting, up to and including targeting the commander-in-chief for assassination or bombing his house. This is part of the reason why modern army officers tend to not wear flashy uniforms on the battlefield anymore; it's much easier to find and kill the leader if he's dressed fancier than all the others.** It's an unwritten convention because heads-of-state hesitate to set the precedent of executing others. Capturing them and subjecting them to the process of a global trial first lends legitimacy to the execution, plus spreads the responsibility for it around to other countries.** Additionally, they are the person who can order the enemy to surrender to you, which might be useful to keep an option.[[/folder]]----